<p>I just called my current mortgage company – my loan has had four owners in the past 24 years! – about my payoff amount. I just had a feeling that the numbers weren’t adding up and didn’t see how the principal would be paid off in less than six years. He gave me the payoff amount, and I asked what he had as my payoff date. Imagine my surprise when he has a payoff date more than 3.5 years later than I do. He said their records show the Deed of Trust as dated 8/31/93 when we moved in 2/1/90. WTH?</p>
<p>Obviously, there’s a mistake somewhere, and I am sure I can prove we’ve been paying on our loan since 1990, with a few months of extra principal. But how is the mistake going to get fixed, monetarily? Haven’t I been paying too much interest and not enough principal because of their (or some lender’s) mistake? What do I ask for? I have to put something in writing and fax it to the company, so looking for help with wording.</p>
<p>This is the kind of bureaucratic BS I have nightmares about. TIA</p>
<p>I would personally start by asking the company to give you a breakdown from the date they took the loan over - or further back if they have it - of the balance due each month and your payment each month and how it was applied. They should be able to produce that from their computer, and then go back from there all the way to the origination and see if you can find the mistake.</p>
<p>I would be less concerned about the date and focus on the balance - is the principal balance on the loan what you believe it should be? If not - ask for an amortization history from when they took over the loan - showing the date each monthly payment was applied and the resulting balance.</p>
<p>You should receive a Form 1098 from your mortgage lender each January for tax purposes - pull out your last few and look at the year end balance. It should be decreasing by a larger amount every year.</p>
<p>Do you have your paperwork from the 1990 closing? If you have the Note - that will be the defining legal document. Are you saying you took out a 30 year loan in 1990 and never refinanced? Did you ever have a serious escrow shortage that they might have added to the principal balance? Did you ever do any type of loan modification or fall behind on the loan?</p>
<p>Yep, 1990, fixed-rate and never refinanced.</p>
<p>I am confused by the $$$. I mean, they can take the amount of money overpaid to interest and put it to premium, but what about that for however many years that was my money that I couldn’t use or invest? Am I owed some money as a penalty? How will the “refund” amount be figured? Assuming there is, in fact, an overage, also, is my escrow affected by a too-large premium amount? I’m just trying to figure out what all the financial implications might be.</p>
<p>Let’s start with basics. If you want to tell me, on here or by pm, your starting loan amount, curent balance and interest rate, it is pretty easy to determine what your principal balance should be. </p>
<p>Do you have the prodigious amount of paperwork that they probably gave you when you first got the loan? That should have a detailed amortization schedule, and it should be listed exactly when you got the loan, and when it should be paid off. Of course, if you made extra payments, it should be paid off earlier, and the loan amount should be less. Are you sure they haven’t raised the interest rate on you? Not that they legally could, but obviously these people don’t know what they’re doing.</p>
<p>“Am I owed some money as a penalty? How will the “refund” amount be figured? Assuming there is, in fact, an overage, also, is my escrow affected by a too-large premium amount? I’m just trying to figure out what all the financial implications might be.”</p>
<p>If and when this gets straightened out, you wouldn’t have a “refund”. Instead, your principal balance and your last payment day should be what you expect.</p>
<p>Nevermind. I figured it out. I had totally forgotten that we DID refinance back in '93. Argh. All these years I’ve been thinking we’d be done in 2020. Very sad now. And embarrassed that I am such a dummy. But thanks, everyone.</p>
<p>No worries. Use online calculators found on bankrate.com or just google a phrase like “calculate mortgage balance” and you enter your starting loan amount, rate, term and date of the loan and it will calculate what your balance should be. If you have a rate over 4% - consider refinancing to a 10 year fixed rate loan. </p>
<p>It can get confusing! For sure. Glad you figured it put because dealing with the mortgage company folks would have been a royal PITA.</p>
<p>We refinanced also, a few times. Once to reduce the rate and reduce the term to 15 years from 30. And another time to reduce the term to 10 years. </p>
<p>We never refinanced for another 30 year loan. So glad to have that mortgage done!!</p>
<p>Have you considered refinancing now, for a 10 year fixed? You could probably get a rate under 3%-- you’d have a reduced monthly payment, but could opt to continue paying the same each month, with the extra being applied to principal rather than interest, which might result in an actual payoff several months ahead of what is planned. Of course, when you factor in costs against your outstanding balance, it might not be that much – but for example, if you have an outstanding balance of $100K, at 7.5% vs. 3% possible on a 10-year note, that could mean an immediate difference of about $375/month in interest. </p>
<p>If they refinanced in 1993…isn’t that 21 years ago? Even harder to remember that far back!</p>
<p>To the OP…we did our last refinance when we had nine years left…and took a ten year mortgage. We took out an additional amount to pay off a car, and even with that, our payments were less because the interest rate was so much lower. It’s worth checking.</p>
<p>I did a refinance last year, 10 year note, I owed about $112K. For some reason or other, the mortgage broker said I had to be financing at least $120K to get the rate I wanted, so I just did that amount and said that I was taking the cash to do a bathroom remodel-- but as soon as the loan came through, I turned right around and sent the extra $8K back as an advance payment toward principal. I actually did remodel the bathroom - so I wasn’t lying-- but I just didn’t really need to borrow extra to afford the costs of the remodel. </p>
<p>There was some question about whether I could qualify for the 10 year note vs. a 15 year note- I think I just squeaked by on the 10 - that’s because monthly payment amounts are higher on the shorter term note – but I would have been ok with the longer note, I would just have done the math and paid extra to principal in order to compensate and make sure my house was paid off at the same time.</p>
<p>My personal goal is to have my house paid off by my 66th birthday,which is when I become eligible for social security. It’s part of my plan to make sure that I can actually live off of social security if I need to. </p>
<p>FWIW, I only had about 7 years left on the mortgage, but I did the math and my broker did as well, and I’m still coming out ahead. Not by a whole lot, given how far along I am, but it was enough of a savings to be worth the effort to refi. </p>